Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has told journalists and politicians who "spread fake news" of a Syrian plane landing in Budapest should show self-restraint, saying the reports were completely untrue and could put Hungary in danger in the current febrile atmosphere.
"Some politicians pounced on this news and created a huge fake news tsunami from it," the foreign minister said. Minister Szijjártó said "political profiteering" from the fake news soon caught hold in Hungary.
Fake news connected to the "struggle" in the Middle East "involving terrorist organizations" could put the whole country "in very serious danger", he said, adding that the false reports started spreading on Sunday and peddled distortions over the evacuation of Hungary's embassy in Syria.
The Syrian embassy in Budapest could have been targeted by terrorists, he said, adding that it was also possible that terrorist attacks may be mounted against Hungarian interests, people and communities "anywhere in the world" if the terrorists were to act on information that "justify their way of thinking".
Minister Szijjártó called on "Hungarian journalists and all Hungarian politicians to exercise self-restraint ... and try to behave a little responsibly".
Luckily a tragedy had not occurred this time, "but it could have", he said.